Lot Details

Description

Alessandro Gherardini attr.

Florence 1655 - Livorno 1727

Saint Cecilia

Early 18th century

Olio on canvas

in 35,24x45,67

Francesco Saverio Baldinucci, in the first half of the 18th century, described the biography of Alessandro Gherardini and the composition of the painting as follows:

“He returned to Florence, where he painted several works for his said friend and patron Alessandro Del Grazia. Among these was a depiction of Saint Cecilia, with an angel playing the violin while she holds the music sheet before him”

This description is from Baldinucci's Zibaldone Baldinucciano (Baldinucci F., Zibaldone Baldinucciano, 2 voll. Firenze, 1981, II, pp. 503-504). Baldinucci Jr., in his detailed biography, also mentions a companion piece:

“As its pendant, he created a Saint Agatha expiring from the cruel cutting of her breasts, supported by an angel while the Apostle Saint Peter descends from Heaven to heal her wounds”

This second composition by the artist is also known, albeit unpublished, in a painting preserved at San Michele a Ronta in the Mugello, along with a companion canvas depicting the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (another version of this painting was exhibited at Il falso e la ragione, Florence 2009, cat. no. 12, p. 86).

Although it is uncertain whether the Saint Cecilia mentioned is the one executed for Del Grazia or another version—since Gherardini often repeated his most successful compositions—the biographer’s account is significant. It not only confirms the evident authorship of the great Florentine painter, widely regarded as the most talented artist of Florence between the 17th and 18th centuries, but also provides chronological context.

Baldinucci refers to a specific period in Gherardini's career: the years following his return to Florence from Livorno in 1702. This period preceded his permanent relocation to the Tuscan capital seven years later, after a visit from King Frederick IV of Denmark, who, according to Baldinucci, misled the artist with false promises of employment in his kingdom (Meloni Trkulja S., L'attività tarda di Alessandro Gherardini sulla costa tirrenica e un nuovo acquisto delle Gallerie Fiorentine, in Antichità Viva, XXIV, nn. 1-3, 1995, pp.75-81.).

The painting's mature style further supports this dating. Its distinctively somber tones—inviting comparisons with 17th-century Spanish painting, particularly in the proud and somewhat defiant expression of the saint—align with the later phase of Gherardini’s career. During this period, as Meloni Trkulja notes (op. cit., p. 76), Gherardini “revived sumptuous and gleaming tones in the drapery [...] achieving a Rubensian depth in the corporeality of his figures, which nonetheless lack heaviness thanks to the luminous surfaces emerging from a dense but vibrant shadow.”

From the critical analysis, Dr. Federico Berti

Dimensions

in 35,24x45,67

Provenance

Private Collection

Bibliography

Baldinucci F., Zibaldone Baldinucciano, 2 voll. Firenze, 1981, II, pp. 503-504

Meloni Trkulja S., L'attività tarda di Alessandro Gherardini sulla costa tirrenica e un nuovo acquisto delle Gallerie Fiorentine, in Antichità Viva, XXIV, nn. 1-3, 1995, pp.75-76-81.

Conditions

Imperfections and restorations.

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